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Posts Tagged ‘art’

I jumped at the chance to review Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale, an unconventional graphic memoir from writer/artist Belle Yang. While I am no expert on graphic literature, I did devour Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis series. With this medium, I enjoy (and envy) the way an artist can show emotions through inked illustrations, and use words more sparingly. Further, there is an intimacy created on the page, because the typeface and conversational style evoke a personal journal lying on a nightstand.

Read the complete review, published on August 23, 2010, and post your comments at Elevate Difference.

My recent visit to NYC refreshed my need for creative stimulation. On my farm, caring for my young daughter, I often remind myself that art can be in the details: in my food preparation, in my efforts to put pen to paper, and, especially, in appreciation of my daughter’s prolific creative output. We take walks in the neighboring town and peep in the windows of the glassblowing studio, and, with my love of street art, I glow by the murals. However, I needed this walk through the East Village for the variety and the quality of surprise.

In Union Square we came across benches made of thick slabs of ice. Towels were available so you could sit on the ice without getting drenched. After being in the subway, a seat on a block of ice is incredibly refreshing. Someone with more entrepreneurial impulse than I could start a booming business selling blocks of ice like this. (maybe someone already does so?) This installation, Burning ICE, was created by Taiwanese artist Chih Chih Yang. Detailed coverage can be found here.

As we approached 9th Street I gave my daughter a little history lesson—”P.S. 122 is a very important place. lots of fun art and performance happens here.”—and stopped abruptly when I saw a guerrilla knitting project along the fence. As we continued around the corner, my daughter gleeful chirped, “There’s more! There’s more!”, and ran her fingers over her favorites. There are photos of the 9th Street fence at the P.S. 122 blog.

Friends of mine had the pleasure of encountering a bus covered in knitting in Mexico City. These guerrilla knitting projects thrill me and warm my heart. Maybe soon there will be such a project in my town? hmm….